


File Corruption

by LAbare



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Original Statement (The Magnus Archives), Post-MAG22 (Martin discovering Jane Prentiss), Statement Fic (The Magnus Archives), The Magnus Archives Season 1, Worms (not canon-typical), no beta we die like Prentiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27088261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LAbare/pseuds/LAbare
Summary: Statement of Aman Ashik, regarding xir former employee Hiba Ibrahim’s encounter with a cursed IT artifact.Written in a bit of a rush for thePiles of Nonsense Halloween Statements challengeover on Tumblr.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: Piles of Nonsense 2020





	File Corruption

**ARCHIVIST**

“Cursed IT artifact,” huh… Tim found this statement while doing research on the… recent concerns, and thought it might be valuable. I’m not so enclined to agree, but given that we already did most of the follow-up, it can’t hurt to record it now.

Statement of Aman Ashik, regarding xir former employee Hiba Ibrahim’s encounter with a cursed IT artifact. Original statement given August 19th, 2015. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

Statement begins.

**ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)**

I’ve been running my IT repair shop for a dozen years down in Brixton, though for obvious reasons I’m in the process of relocating it. It’s been running quite well so far, with five employees before the incident happened. They’re all on sick leave right now, as per my suggestion, and the only one who hasn’t made plans to find another job is Hiba, on account that she went missing and is probably not human anymore.

It was her who met the customer, during a workshop. We have two of those per week and we teach people how to properly use their computers and devices. It builds a nice, welcoming community, it helps sharing knowledge and it spreads the word around. Also makes our job easier when the customers are tech-savvy enough to describe their problem better than “It’s broken” or “It’s acting weird”.

I don’t know anything about that customer, I was on my way to the lab and I didn’t even have a chance to see his face. Big hoodie over the head and baggy sweatpants. I only got a glance of his hands, which had a sickly colour, but nothing more. I didn’t give it any more thought. Time flew by while I was fixing a laptop, then I heard people chatting and leaving. Hiba came into the lab and left a brown paper bag marked “BUGGED MOUSE” on her shelf. She told me that the customer with a hoodie really insisted on having his mouse repaired, though he wouldn’t elaborate on what was wrong with it and refused her offer to buy a new cheap mouse instead. When she told me how much money he had left on the counter, well, I agreed to let her take the time she needed on that one weird job.

Once she left the lab for the front desk, I did have a peek. It was one of those old mice with a rubber ball that becomes sticky with grime. The rest of the mouse had also been left unattended, such that the white paint had turned the same sickly yellow as I saw his hands. I did consider going back on my decision and throwing it away right there and then, but I decided to let Hiba deal with it. It was just strange, just curious enough that part of me, and probably part of her, wanted to know what was going on. Then I got back to work on that laptop, and once it was fixed we switched positions.

She was in charge of closing the shop that day, as I had to leave early for family matters, but I made sure to check in on her and offered to buy her something to eat; she often loses track of time when she’s focused on a task, and I could tell that the mouse was taking all of her attention. She told me that no amount of cleaning it made it any less disgusting, which explained her wearing several pairs of rubber gloves, and that there wasn’t a single screw or opening to disassemble it in a non-destructive manner. She was going to try plugging it in to see what the customer meant by “bugged,” and I made up my mind not to stick around. I waved her goodbye and rushed out.

My heart skipped a beat when I came to open the shop the next morning and found it had not been closed. If there was any damage, I’d rather deal with it myself than get the cops involved, so I grabbed a fire extinguisher as a makeshift weapon and walked in carefully. I called for whoever was there, but there was no answer. I checked the cash register and the stocks: nothing had been stolen, or even touched. Then I opened the door to the lab, and I nearly fainted, both from the putrid smell and from the horrid sight.

What I saw was Hiba sitting at her desk, facing her screen, completely still. But it wasn’t her: it was only her sloughed skin turned that same sickly yellow, somehow stiff enough to keep its shape, with a hole where her face had been. Whatever… hatched out of her, for lack of a better word, it was nowhere to be seen. The mouse wasn’t plugged in, it had disappeared as well. Her computer was still on, the screen had simply gone to sleep; despite the situation, I felt compelled to get closer and have a look. I pressed a key to wake it up, dreading whatever it might display.

But the screen was still dark. What happened instead is that small worms poured out of the keyboard, then out of every port. The cables started to twitch, then ripped open with more worms flowing out. I ran out and sealed the lab door shut, with the hope that they wouldn’t follow me. I guess my screams were alarming enough for my neighbours to call the police, and they found me shaking and sobbing in the corner opposite the door. Not that they were any gentle during the interrogation process after such a traumatising event, but they did let me go quickly enough, given that I was obviously not responsible for this. They told me they had a special team taking care of the building and that I had to go home. I did need the time off, and even if I had known they simply planned to burn the shop to the ground, I guess there’s very little I could have done. They claimed it was an accidental fire. _Sure_. The insurance covered the building, but it could never cover for my nightmares since and for the way people in the neighbourhood looked at me with half pity and half apprehension. Nobody knows the full story: they were simply told to look out for worms.

**ARCHIVIST**

Statement ends.

This is the kind of statement that makes me glad I’m recording it on tape. A quick investigation confirms that the building was destroyed in a fire, described indeed by the police as accidental. There is no mention of Hiba or her skin in the police reports, though she is listed as a missing person. Aman was not available for a follow-up, but I doubt xe could provide additional relevant details.

Sasha managed to fetch the CCTV files for that night, but they are corrupted beyond repair. There are only a few images where one could make out a tall figure exiting the shop and describe it as “non-human,” but I find it hard to believe it could be anything else than our own projections on a few blurry pixels. She also has a lead to retrieve the mouse, which would be useful for Artifact Storage. Nothing in Tim’s general research on worms fits this statement. Martin is obviously relieved from working on this case; as much as I hate to admit it, he is more computer-literate than me, and I would rather his fragile mind was kept safe if those horrors start using technology. I do need all aces up my sleeve.

End recording.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: @asmr-brutal-calliope-murder


End file.
